20 Sep 2013

1. For me coming back from a nice holiday, needs some days of adjustment. Therefore I spent the whole morning in company of around 800 pictures to be sort out, I also was late in comments, catching up on my friend's blogs, and was deeply sunken in holiday memories. Fortunately there was nothing to do in the household and my laundry could wait. But I didn't forget my Monday's aqua gym and it was nice to see my whole group again after two months of school holidays ! For me school holidays are a plague, every activity is closed, apparently we are still considered as students, although we are on holidays the whole year !

2. During our journey down to the Lake of Geneva, I drove Dominique's new car, a Toyota Yaris Hybride. It was as comfortable as mine, but had the advantage to consume not even half of petrol (gaz) as a "normal" car. Under 50 to 60 km/h (37 miles) it only consumes electricity which costs nothing and only on the highways it switched to petrol mode loading the electricity battery at the same time. As petrol is very expensive in Europe we did a real bargain with this car ! Decision taken, I want one !

3. After some shopping I went to Toyota and asked for an estimate price for the same car. With that I came home and surprised Mr. G. His car is meanwhile 10 years old and starts to need more and more repairs, as all older person do. As I had done all the job, Mr. G. was delighted agreed immediately so I took an appointment with Toyota.

and that's how it looks. Mr. G. inherits my Opel Corsa which is only 4 years old, as I drive more then him.

I also mowed the lawn, the dishwasher did its job while blogging,thanks to Oscar the lawn mower robot. Happy modern life !

4. We asked Dominique to come over to compare the price of what she had payed and we had been offered, discussed insurance and taxes and above all the consumption of petrol. For around 2000 km (1243 miles) we only payed half of the petrol price of a "normal" car, thanks to the electric system.

5. My painting class had started too, and there was a lot to tell ! But the highlight of the day was at 3 pm when we had an appointment with the Toyota salesman and it's done !! I am now the proud owner of a new car at beginning of October ! I am so happy that I could jump to the ceiling, but I am afraid I would make a hole and then need somebody to repair it !

19 Sep 2013

On our way back from the Geneva Lake we stopped in Reims to visit the town.

As we had to wait for the sightseeing bus, we decided to visit the Carnegie Library of Reims which seemed to be a very interesting building especially for Art Deco lovers. It is a public library built with money donated by businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to the city of Reims after World War I. Until 2003, the Carnegie Library was the main library of Reims.

The Art Deco decor of the Carnegie Library, because of the harmony of its proportions, the elegance of its architecture included it in the French inventory of Monuments.

This is just to give you an overlook of this library for your general knowledge, if you want to know more, just click on the link. I don't like to copy and paste Wikipedia !

Dominique and Nicole act as proof that we had been there

The luster and the wallpaper when you entered the library were absolutely stunning.

So were the ceilings

As our time was limited we only admired the very old books which were mostly bibles, as in the 12 or 14th century not many people could read and what they read was the bible. I doubt that there were many love, or crime stories around. This bible was decorated with semi precious stones and embossed with gold.

I was so busy to try to read the old scripts, mostly in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, that I forgot to take pictures and tried to compose this collage with pictures I found on Internet. Just to give you an idea what I saw.

Now I also understand that the bible who is the most translated book in the world, could be translated as the translator wished and everybody could add a little extra. Nobody could check ! I know of what I am talking as I did translations myself. One misunderstood word could change the whole meaning of the text. That's why St. Matthew translated that priests can marry and have children, while St. Paul translated that they are not allowed to. Same for the Koran, where women suddenly have to be covered from head to feet. (For example)

The public library was a huge room with lots and lots of books all around on several levels. I whispered if I could take pictures and the lady whispered back a "yes". Besides the old methods people also used computers. Sign of the modern world.

Another room was full from to top to bottom with little drawers. On one side in alphabetical order

on the other side with the theme you were looking for. All information were written on little cards.

Outside was a little park with beautiful flower pots. It was really very interesting.

18 Sep 2013

17 Sep 2013

I went with two friends to Thonon les Bains to spend some holidays. On our way to the Lake of Geneva, we stopped for a day in Troyes. I loved it from first sight ! I found myself suddenly in the 16th century or even earlier, because many half-timbered houses (mainly of the 16th century) survived in the old town. Troyes has been in existence since the Roman era, which stood at the hub of numerous highways, primarily the Via Agrippa.

16 Sep 2013

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of September 13 . If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.

The departure day had arrived and we cleaned our rooms, loaded our luggage and off we went direction Reims, which I had chosen for a stop before we returned to Brussels. I thought there would be a lot to see and as we had time to spend it seemed a good idea.

We had our picnic on the motorway and our car seemed like a toy car between the huge trucks ! To stretch our bodies we did some Yoga exercises much to the fun of the truck drivers. But that didn't bother us at all. Then it started to rain and as I was more familiar with my GPS, I drove most of the time. First it was OK but then started a heavy rain and we arrived rather late in Reims, far too tired to visit the town.

Fortunately just besides our little hotel was a Turkish restaurant, where we had an excellent meal. The owner absolutely wanted to be on the picture and the whole atmosphere in this little snack was very familiar and funny and we had a relaxing meal. In the rain we returned back to our hotel and fell in our beds.

The next day we wanted to explore Reims, but it still rained. We first looked for a place for breakfast and found a very old beautiful Café, nicely decorated and quiet old. It had already belonged to the owners Grandma, and he wasn't the youngest one. It was very elegant too and we had coffee and croissants.

Then we visited the cathedral. I had heard so much about it, that I was disappointed when I saw it in real. From outside it looks very impressive but the inside is rather poor. I liked the smiling angel. There was no explanation either so I count on Wikipedia to explain me a little more of what I have seen (or rather not).

These two memorial plaques in front of the Cathedral were interesting, it was the French and German reconciliation after WW2 signed by General de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer on my birthday the 8 juillet ! Only it was in 1962.

As it was impossible to stroll through the city in this rain, we decided to take a sightseeing tour. We had to wait for an hour for the bus, because it's not yet well organized.

Instead of waiting in the rain we visited the library which was all in art deco and really beautiful. Very interesting too, with beautiful books decorated with semi precious stones.

The bus finally arrived, it was quiet small and took us through the city. The things to see were very spread over the whole town and with the help of headphones we got explanations, only the trees were not cut so that we didn't see a lot but green wet leaves. But at least the city hall and the Champagne manufacturers which you can visit and taste the Champagne. Not for free of course.

After the tour we were hungry and a bit disappointed and we looked for a restaurant, and the first we saw was a Pub !! It was very nice and we didn't hesitate a second and went inside. The food was very good (I had Fish & chips) and the decoration very beautiful too.

After lunch we drove the last 300 km home, that means I drove while the two others fell asleep and I had the impression to drive a funeral car with two corpses in it. But later they woke up ! Dominique drove the last piece until home. Nicole was greeted with joy by her dog, and I only by Mr. G. the cats had disappeared. We all felt a little sad that our wonderful holidays and our life together had ended too.

On Sunday I only went to the market and spend the rest of the day sorting out my pictures (there are a lot !) and of course it rained ....

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About Me

I love painting, writing, travelling and photography. My favorit models are my four cats which I observe with fun and humor. I am German, married to an Italian and we live in Waterloo (15 km from Brussels) / Belgium since many years. Waterloo is a famous place to many tourists, because Napoleon lost his battle here against Wellington and other European countries.